Bureau



(No Model.)

B. V. HAWKINS.

BUREAIL- No. 331,966. Patented Dec. 8, 1885.

F I I a I l J H 1 c I H .3

\1 J W a Y n ITLVEIILDF' (Ball/(r N PETERS. Hwlwllfllcgraphor. Wnhingion. ma

UNITED STATES PATENT rricn,

EDWARD V. HAWKINS, OF CONNERSVILLE, INDIANA.

BUREAU.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 331,966, dated December 8, 1885.

Application filed September 21, 1885. Serial No. 177,688.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD V. HAWKINS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Gonnersville, in the county of Fayette and State of Indiana, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Bureaus, &c., of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of furniture which is known to the trade as drawer work, including such articles as bureaus, wash-stands, chiffoniers, cabinets, &c., and particularly to the frame. or carcass of such articles. Its object is a cheap and reliable means of constructing the same so that when put together the drawer-openings will be true and of uniform size, so that the drawers may be fitted by machinery and interchangeably used, thus dispensing with special fitting and numbering of the same. My object is also a cheap knockdown bureau or other drawercase that may be finished to pack in a very small space, and readily be put up by unskilled workmen with but little labor after reaching their destination.

There are now in use special machines which dress drawers to an exact size, perfectly true, the sides at exact right angles to the front and entirely out of wind, but the difficulty heretofore has been to make the carcass perfect enough to receive these drawers without fitting each separately and then numbering the drawers and openings for them, so that they may be returned to the same place after varnishing or finishing. To overcome this difficulty it is common to first prepare the drawers, and then, after the ends, front, and back of the bureau are prepared,to clamp the carcass together around them. Another method is to make frames the exact size of the inside of the bureau in cross-section and frame the carcass around these, the frames serving as the drawer-runners or bottom and top guides. Both of these modes are troublesome and expensive, and by neither of them can the arti- (N0 model.)

2 is a transverse horizontal section taken through line a: w of Fig.1. Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken through line y y, looking to the front of the bureau.

The ends of the bureau are framed up in the usual manner. I have shown the ordinary panel end, consisting of side stiles, A, and cross-stiles B, framed up and inclosing the panel C. The front stiles, D, and back stiles, E, are of the same width. After the stiles D are mortised to receive the front rails, F F, and the back stiles grooved to receive the back cross-rails, G, and ends of the panels H, they are glued upon the ends, which are first dressed to uniform widths,and blocks I rubbed in to securely hold them together. The pieces J are now secured in place. These pieces, when in position, come flush with the edges. of the front and back stiles, D E, and are wide enough to extend beyond the front rails,so as serve as side guides to the drawers.

In putting up the ends it is only necessary to make the joints and finish the outside of the panels 0. The other surfaces are left undressed. After the ends are put up they are run through a planer. This dresses both sides true. The outsides are then finished upon a sand paper drum. The back and front rails are precisely the same length between the tench-shoulders, so that when the carcass is framed together the drawer-openings must be perfectly in square. The strips or drawerrunners K (only one of which is shown) are secured upon the pieces J, opposite the rails F and at right angles to the front and back stiles. These runners are the same thickness as the rails F, so that they serve as top guides as well as runners for the drawers.

It is evident that a bureau constructed as described above will have the drawer-openings perfectly in square and uniform in size, so that when the drawers are dressed true by the machine any one will fit into any bureau constructed according to my invention. It is also evident that any of the parts for one bureau will fit any other bureau, as they are all cut and dressed by machinery. (The only hand work about them is putting the parts together.) The parts therefore need not be numbered when the bureaus are shipped knock: down.

What I claim as new is- ICO be dressed true in the planer, and the front and back cross-rails made of the same length to between tenons, for the purpose set forth.

EDWARD V. HAWKINS.

made to come flush with the inside edges of F. T. Roo'rs,

CHARLES MOUNT.

the front and back stiles, so that the end may 

